Every Zipp story tagged #MaxPain, newest first.
Two weekly expiries through Deribit knocked out the dealer-hedging excuse for Bitcoin's flat tape. The remaining big bet needs 9% upside by July 31, two days after a Fed meeting markets can't call.
The put-call ratio split tells the actual story: ETH traders opened more puts than calls, while BTC positioning stayed almost evenly balanced ahead of Friday's expiry.
BTC saw the heavier expiry at $1.9B notional, but ETH's put-call ratio above 1 signals hedgers leaning defensive into the print.
Weak quarterly expiry volumes and a put-call ratio below 1 on both legs leave the structural read unchanged: desks are hedging, not chasing, while persistent spot ETF and Strategy selling pressure…
The max-pain magnet at $72K didn't pull: ~80% of $10.6B in notional expired worthless, confirming spot flow, not the options book, is driving BTC price into the next leg.
A 162,000 BTC notional expiry lands Friday at 08:00 UTC, and the $72K max-pain level with a 0.81 put/call ratio is the magnet dealers will defend into settlement.
The popular theory that spot gravitates to the strike where options buyers lose the most is failing in real time, with BTC stuck near $61,700 against a $72,000 max pain target on Friday's record…
31,000 BTC contracts and 138,000 ETH contracts rolled off Friday. The put-call split shows hedgers leaning cautious on ETH while BTC's open interest stayed tilted bullish.
With only 20% of the June 26 expiry currently profitable and max pain sitting 14% above spot, the largest expiry on the calendar is shaping up as a volatility catalyst either way.
CryptoSlate
WuBlockchain
Crypto News
CoinDesk